C is one of the oldest and most powerful programming language that was first developed in the 1970s by Dennis Ritchie. However, if C programming is mastered, learning other programming languages will be easy. This article will help you to start learning C programming, by using the compiler Turbo C++ IDE.

Steps

1

Download Turbo C++ IDE for your operating system.

Turbo C++ may not work in Windows Vista and Windows 7. You may have to run it through another program called DosBox.

Install the software DOSBox version 0.74

Create a folder,for example "Turbo" (C:\Turbo\):

Download and extract TC into the Turbo folder (c:\Turbo\):

Run the DOSBox 0.74 from the icon located on the desktop:

Type the following commands at the command prompt [Z]:

mount d c:\Turbo\ [The folder TC is present inside the folder Turbo]

Now you should get a message which says: Drive D is mounted as a local directory c:\Turbo\

Type d: to shift to d:

Next follow the commands below:

cd tc
cd bin
tc or tc.exe
[This starts you the Turbo C++ 3.0]

In the Turbo C++ go to Options>Directories> Change the source of TC to the source directory [D] ( i.e. virtual D: refers to original c:\Turbo\ . So make the path change to something like D:\TC\include and D:\TC\lib respectively )

You can save yourself some time by having DOSBox automatically mount your folders and start TurboC++:

For DOSBox versions older then 0.74 browse into program installation folder and open the dosbox.conf file in any text editor. For version 0.73 go to Start Menu and click on “Configuration” and then “Edit Configuration“. Then scroll down to the very end, and add the lines which you want to automatically execute when DOSBox starts.

2

Once you have got yourself the Turbo C++ compiler, learn about the #include, printf (Printf is used to print a message onto the console) and scanf (Scanf is used to scan a message from the console to the memory) functions.

3

Create a basic Hello World program and run it. Congratulate yourself, you're starting to learn C programming in Turbo C++ IDE!

4

Remember, C is a High Level Language (HLL). It is case sensitive, modular and structured.

5

Learn about keywords. These are predefined words reserved by the language. Each keyword has a specific function. We cannot use keywords for any other purpose.

There are 32 keywords in C language.

Every keyword is case sensitive.

A keyword cannot be an identifier, variable or a function.

Examples of keywords : void, if, else, do.

6

Learn about variables. Variables are names given to certain memory blocks where the program will store certain values. To use a variable, the programmer will have to declare it first.

7

Datatype : These indicate the type of value represented by certain variable. Given below are the 4 most common and important data types and on the right hand side is their format-specifier.